The sun hung low over the shattered buildings, a pale, exhausted light that made the shadows longer than they should be. The rain had finally stopped, but the air still carried the scent of ozone – burnt electricity, old metal, cold fire.
They walked in silence. Rhea led, Alaric behind her, Lina in the middle. Each step on the glass floor sounded as if the world was remembering that it was made of fragments.
The line they left behind was barely visible, but in Lina's mind it echoed. A thin thread of frequencies, vibrating between skin and breath. Malrik's echo.
"He's looking for us," Rhea murmured without turning around. Her voice was flat, as if she were speaking into a machine. "I can feel the signals jumping underground. He's redrawing the networks."
"Can he pick up our trail?" Alaric asked.
"Not directly. The node is disconnected, but he has enough resonance to sense our movement. To him, we're like shadows in water. Not an image, just waves."
